Altered Universe S1 EP1: The Rise of Reach
by TheAngryMan
Summary: With the Covenants battle fleet in retreat, it's up to the Clones and Spartans to take back Reach.
1. Chapter 1

_Victory over Reach, as the Republic fleets headed by General Skywalker and Admiral Cole force the Fleet of Particular Justice into retreat, there remains the matter of destroying the last of the Covenant ground forces. Under the command of JedI General Obi-Wan Kenobi, Republic troops are tasked with wiping out the last of the Covenants ground forces._

Captain Rex stepped into the briefing room, where General Kenobi and Commander Cody were waiting for him.

"Ah Captain" Kenobi commented "Nice of you to join us."

"Sorry if I'm late" He replied "Got dragged into an argument about what animal the UNSC's jeep looks like."

"If you don't mind" Admiral Cole interrupted over the holoprojector "We do have a battle to win!"

"Right" Kenobi replied as the holoprojector shifted to display the battlefield "Our objective is to retake an ONI facility that is currently under Covenant control. The UNSC already has Noble team assigned to this objective, but due to certain circumstances, they need us to back them up."

He continued " Cody will take four gunships and a CR-20 transport in first. Once the UNSC ground team secures the insertion point, Cody will deploy his tanks in it and then push on to the Covenant AA guns on this ridge." indicating the well defended ridgeline to the east of sword.

He then gestured to Rex "Once the guns are eliminated, Rex will take Torrent Company and meet up with the rest of the UNSC's strike force" he said, indicating the other members of Noble "deploying in Sword base's courtyard, and eliminating any Covenant resistance, and clearing the way for our Dropships."

"Sir yes Sir!" Both clones replied as they headed off to ready their men.

XXX

Cody's group exited the Acclamator's hanger and rushed through Reach's skies. Even from high altitude, the battle raging on the surface was clear as day. A Scarab charged its beam, only to be eliminated by three SPHA-T's combined fire. AT-TE's traded fire with Wraiths, and JedI slashed their way through Zealots. It was a nightmare, but one they were winning. Finally, Sword base came into view.

Cody looked out and saw Noble Six's team. They had eliminated the Covenant forces in their insertion point, which happened to be just big enough for the CR-20 to land in.

"CR-20" Cody barked "Land in that depression and deploy your Tanks."

"Copy that Sir."

The gunship pushed forward, eliminating several pickets of Covenant along the way. Once the AA-guns came into sight the Gunships landed and the Clone troopers poured out.

Blaster bolts flashed across the ridge as members of the 212th traded fire with the Covenant. After a minute, the TX Fighter tanks and a scorpion, piloted by Six, rolled over the ridgeline, eager to engage in combat. Commander Cody activated his COM link. "Pilot" He yelled "Concentrate your fire on those Anti-Aircraft guns."

"Roger that" the pilot replied "adjusting fire heading." The tanks main guns opened up on the nearest gun emplacement while the tanks gunner laid down suppressing fire with his particle beam turret. The rest of the tanks followed suit and the emplacement exploded into a brilliant display of blue fire. The Second gun was brought down by Noble Six's Scorpion, single handed.

"Good job Six" Carter A-259 Affirmed on the COM "We've got a clear path to Sword now". As the teams Falcon flew towards Sword, Jun A-266, who had been observing the battle with his sniper, realized something. :Where's Delta?' He asked Six.

"They took the scenic route."

"What?"

"They're flanking using the lake as cover."

"Oh."

XXX

Nearby a Covenant Elite was on patrol. The Heretics were closing in, now that their retched allies had crippled the holy fleet. He had to be on guard, as the Humans had taken out the defensive AA guns and were advancing. The Elite wouldn't be able to help in the coming battle, as he was grabbed from behind and a vibroblade tore through his throat.

"Nighty night, split face!" said RC-1207, better known as Sev, as he finished off the dying alien. The rest of Delta swam out of the water. Quickly checking to make sure they hadn't lost anything, Boss, official designation RC-1138, ordered the team to stack up. He took out his Macrobinoculars and scanned the area.

"So Boss" RC-1262, codename Scorch, inquired "What needs to blow up."

"We've got a Shade to our left, and another further up, a fuel rod to our front, and a second one on the right ridge, plus a couple of Revenants." Boss Quickly formulated a plan. He gestured to RC-1140, Fixer.

"Fixer, take out that Shade gunner and be ready to fire at my command, Scorch, scale that plateau and be ready to kill the fuel rod gunner, Sev, get your sights on the ridge and take out the gunner on my mark."

Each squad mate got into position and, after a few tense moments Boss yelled "Now!"

The Revenant's pilot couldn't react fast enough, and his craft exploded under the rapid fire assault of Fixer's Shade. A grunt let out a pathetic squeal as he was thrust out of his shade and fell several meters to the ground. The other Fuel rod Gunner heard the commotion and turned his gun, only to be missing his head the next second.

Scorch wasted no time in mowing down the last Turret and focused his fire on the Revenant. What little hope was left for the Covenant was smashed when the TX-Fighter tanks and the 212th Attack Battalion stormed over the hill.

XXX

Captain Rex looked down upon the battle below with content. Cody's forces were pushing through fine, but it was up to him and Torrent Company to push through and give the Commandos a clear path into the facility.

"Alright men" Rex barked "Gear up."

All the troopers scrambled, grabbing their weapons as they approached the LZ.

"Get ready Troopers!" the gunship's pilot yelled.

As the gunship touched down, the doors flung open. Out rushed twenty clone troopers, weapons firing, cutting through all resistance. From the weakest grunt to the biggest elite, nothing lived. Noble Team was actually having trouble keeping up.

As the Covenant were pushed back to Sword Base's entrance, the 212th made their appearance, rushing out from the garage entrance, taking the enemy by surprise. In seconds, the Covenant forces were neutralized.

"Hunters!" one trooper yelled. As a green blob impacted a wall and killed the unlucky trooper.

"Stand back" ordered Cody "The Spartans can handle this."

No sooner had he spoke than Noble Six jumped over the troops and dove at the hunters. Sliding beneath one, Six planted a plasma grenade on its back, hurting it. The two hunters turned two face the Spartan. This proved to be a mistake, as the sound of a Rotatory Blaster Cannon spinning up could be heard, before it rained its lethal payload upon the exposed hunters. They both dropped with the combined fire of Six, the cannon, and the other Noble members.

The Cannon spun down, and it's wielder, an ARC Trooper, slid the weapon on his back. Rex approached him. "Nice shoot." He complimented.

"Anything to pay the Chief back for Rishi." Hevy replied

"Gentlemen" Kat, Noble Two, intervened. "If you don't mind, we have a base to secure."

"you heard the Spartan" Rex barked "Set up a perimeter. Get our artillery on the ground."

Noble Team and Delta Squad entered the facility while the 212th and Torrent Company took up defensive positions.

XXX

Well, that's the first chapter. Since I'm modeling the story after The Clone Wars format, each "Episode" will be divided into three chapters, which are the "Commercial Breaks" of the "Episode".

Also, yes Kat and Hevy are alive, and their survival will be explained later (Hevy already hinted that the Master Chief had something to do with his survival and I know for a fact that a later episode will explain Kat's).

It helps to have played Halo Reach prior to reading this chapter, as the locations in this chapter are virtually unchanged from their appearance in the Halo Reach mission "The Package" (Not to be confused with the Halo Legends episode of the same name)

Yes, there is a lot of things that happened prior to this story that will be explained at another time. Either in a different "Episode", an overall timeline I plan on putting on my profile, or in entirely different fics that don't follow the "Episode" format.

Anyway Comment and Review. Be sure to make constructive criticism, although I know that some people are incapable of that, so try to get your point across without sounding like an annoying 12 year old on XBOX Live.

The "Commercial Break" will be over soon and the whole "Episode" should be out before winter break is over. I say should because things have a tendency to not go as planned.

"Update" I rewrote the first section to make it flow better. I only now realized that it's best to have a briefing scene for exposition rather than what I was doing. I also added all the punctuation missing from the first chapter.

"Update 2" on the Recommendation of Just a Crazy Man, I've added clearer transitions between scenes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, so far I've gotten fairly positive reviews (All three/four of them), so I'm going to respond to them**

**saboteur: Thanks for the encouragement, and on your comment on the trailer, I was kind of already leaning away from the Valkyria Chronicles idea. I know that it isn't going to be a three part "Arc" like the Malevolence was in Clone Wars, but are you sure you don't want the RvB Crossover, where Sarge refers to everything like it's World War II ( Calling the Darcsens Jews, referring to Prince Maximillion as Hitler, and calling the Valkof a Wonder Waffle, while also saying he is related to Tank Dempsey of Nazi Zombies). Please review again and tell me as "It is time for you to do what has to be done and live up to your family name and face Full Life Consequences" to slightly misquote John Freeman.**

**Just a Crazy-Man: thanks, I'm glad you think so.**

**Spartan Commando: You may not realize it, but you may have just saved this fic. You see I suffer from what could be considered the writing equivalent of ADD. Rather than not knowing how to continue/create a story like with writers block, I get so many ideas that I can't focus. I was going to post an update saying sorry and go and write another story to flush it out of my system, but seeing your comment has reinvigorated me. So thanks. Also, I like your story idea and say go for it.**

**I would just like to make it clear that due to renovations at my school, I'm getting Monday off, so that is my hopeful deadline. Anyway thanks for all the reviews.**

We Now Return to Altered Universe….

"Sir" CT-21-0408, better known as Echo, asked his commanding officer "Why are we so worried about a counterattack? The Covenant Fleet is gone and…"

"The remaining ground forces are going to make a beeline to sites of religious importance" Captain Rex Interrupted "this base happens to be at the top of the list due to some data that Dr Halsey had regarding artifact dig sites."

Now it made sense, the Covenant were a people united by religion, and they swore to that religion fiercely. With most of their command structure gone, their religious convictions now held priority, and where else to go but a location where they could find out where their gods artifact lie.

Meanwhile Fives, or CT-27-5555 if you want to be formal, was on the comms with UNSC command.

"I understand that there aren't many units to go around" He argued "But this task force was only equipped to retake Sword, not fight of every Zealot left on this rock."

"I know that trooper" the officer replied "Our forces are stretched thin, and there aren't any units close by to assist."

"Ok, what DO you have!"

"I'm sending some Sparrowhawks from Castle, but it will take awhile before they get here, besides, isn't the 501st supposed to specialize in Ops where the odds are against them?"

"Understood, Fives out."

Several dropships touched down, delivering Proton Cannons that were critical to the 501st's plan.

"Alright everyone." Commander Cody called everyone to attention "Right now were standing on ground zero for Covenant troop deployments. The good news is they don't care about us and rather will be trying to infiltrate Sword on order to recover Dr Halsey's data. Our job is to blow up every dropship they send our way, and when they realize that the flak is to heavy and try and take our guns out, I need every one of you ready to fight, do you read me?

"Sir yes Sir." the troopers replied.

As the troopers went to set up defensive positions and gunners got into their proton cannons, Cody's Comm beeped.

"Sir" Cody's longtime scout Boil yelled "the first dropships on in sight."

XXX

Inside Sword base things were going relatively well. Noble and Delta had cleared the interior of hostiles and proceeded to discover A) Dr Halsey was alive, and a bit surprised at the Republic's intervention, B) she had a massive hidden underground Ops center in Sword, and C) the center happened to be right next to the artifact that the Covenant had been looking for. Expectedly, this did not make Sev very happy.

"Commander" Jun stated "I'm seeing turrets set up in defensive positions."

"Someone was expecting trouble." Boss remarked

Sev Replied in his usual manner "More like asking for it." in reference to the massive alien… thing that was protruding from the cavern walls.

"No time for small talk." Carter intervened "we need those turrets up, the Covenant will be swarming us any minute now!"

They nine man unit fanned out, getting all the turrets turned on and setting themselves in a defensible position. Fixer and Kat were behind the others to provide medical assistance during battle, Sev and Jun were both in sniping positions, Scorch and Emile were manning turrets, while Carter, Six, and Boss were ready to support with their weapons of choice (A DMR, MA37, and DC-17 respectively).

The distinct sound of a Phantom's engine echoed through the cavern, the battle was on!

XXX

The Master Chief was still a bit shocked at the turn of events, not that it showed. The Republic finally stepping in to aid the UNSC directly, risking their own safety in the process, and the return of the UNSC's famous Admiral Cole. It was so perfect it seemed like propaganda, but Chief had seen the Covenant retreat himself, so he knew it was real.

Of course those on the ground knew the word perfect didn't really apply. Good or great maybe, but not perfect. Which was the very reason that Master Chief wanted to get back into the fight. Even with James missing and Linda in surgery, not to mention the beating that Fred's team took, the Spartans knew that Reach needed them!

"So why haven't we been deployed yet?" the Chief growled.

"Patience Chief" General Kenobi replied "I understand you are eager to defend your home, but we can't simply throw you into battle without proper planning."

"I know Sir, it's just…" Chief struggled to find the right words to voice his thoughts.

"I understand Chief" Kenobi continued "This Planet is your home, and you want to defend it like anyone would should their world come under attack."

"Thanks Sir" the Chief replied "Sorry for my outburst"

The General smiled "That is alright Chief, besides, someone is here to see you who I'm sure you'll be glad to see"

A door opened and a man walked in "You called, General?" he asked.

The Master Chief whirled around the second he heard the mans voice, wishing to visually assure what his ears had heard. Sure enough, standing their in heavily modified Grenadier Armor was Spartan-052. Jorge.

XXX

Cody's Proton Cannons took down Phantom after Phantom, but there was no end in sight to their numbers. Even worse was the fact that many Phantoms were coming in at different directions, allowing them to bypass the Clones completely and the Proton Cannons had already gone through half their ammo.

"Sir!" Boil yelled over the Com "The enemy is preparing to land troops outside the complex!"

"Understood trooper, Fall back" Cody said, before turning to Rex

"Rex" Cody said "We need to set up a defensive position outside the base"

"Right" Rex replied, before turning to his men

"Boomer! Kano!" He called "Front and center!"

The two sergeants rushed to Rex's position where they stood at attention

"The Covenant are landing outside, and are going to try and breach sword from the ground" Rex told them "I need you to to set up a perimeter with our remaining tanks."

"Copy that Sir" Kano replied "I won't let you down"

"I'll get the tanks ready sir" Boomer replied

XXX

Well there you have it be sure to review and… Holy crud it's past midnight. Time really does fly. Anyway thanks again to those who have reviewed (Especially you Spartan Commando, Savior of Christmas) I hope to get this chapter up on New Years Eve (Read Tomorrow/Today if you want to get technical).

PS: I just got the new Lego Star Wars Clone trooper Battle pack and the V-Wing Starfighter, and they are AWESOME!

(Update) Upon being lured in by the promise of ten thousand credits for beating Reach on Heroic by a weekly challenge (Which finally got me the ODST Shoulder pad) I did so, and in the process realized that there was a bunch of stuff that I should have put into Halsey's lad section that I forgot, so Chapter three may be late)

"Update 2" Well there goes the whole added dialogue, but I've decided to take the first part of Chap 3 and add it to the end of this, to make the chapters more equal in length. I also forgot that there were no Hunters in "The Package" that happened in "Sword Base"


	3. Chapter 3

**Happy New Years everybody, It's GaryRoachSanderson again and I'd like to tell everyone that I just updated chapter 1 with a new intro scene, so I need everyone to tell me if you like it better this way or preferred the old one so I can leave it be/reupload the old one. Now onto reviews**

**Just a Crazy Man: Happy New Years to you to, and thanks for offering to help, I'll probably need it sometime**

**Karl-591; yeah, backstory is kind of complicated. The main Reason is, well first of all, the current version takes place 1 year after my original concept, which took place 2 years after the Halo and Star Wars universe originally met. And I'm here to warn you that, this crossover is even more expansive than it appears now, though I may actually cut quite a bit of the backstory for practicality. I can guarantee that in addition to Halo and the Clone Wars, the future (Original Trilogy) also has a part in the story(Multidimensional time travel can get confusing). Not to mention that I first began creating this idea for a multidimensional crossover fic when I was six years old, which was in 2000. What you guys are reading is the Fanfic equivalent of duke nukem forever.**

The clones formed a Defensive line composed of 1 Scorpion, 4 TX-Fighter Tanks, and all the Non-ARC members of Torrent Company. Several Phantoms landed, deploying Elites, Grunts, Jackals, and Hunters.

The initial firefight raged for ten minutes, with the scorpion rolling into enemy lines and attacking incoming Phantoms, and light casualties among the clones.

Then the Scorpion was destroyed by the combined fire of two hunters, a Phantom Dropship, and a fuel rod wielding grunt.

Five minutes later there were only Five clones left, including the sergeants. They had also lost one more tank to concussion fire.

"Cody" Kano said over the communicator "Were not going to hold out much longer"

As he finished, four globs of plasma attached to one of the tanks and detonated, wrecking it. Kano decided it was time to fall back. He turned to Boomer.

"Take the rest of the troops and fall back to the courtyard" he said "I'll hold as long as I can"

Boomer and the others ran back through the door, locking it behind them. Kano turned to find another tank gone, leaving him with one. Quickly spotting a Plasma Launcher wielding Grunt, he targeted it and brought it down with his DC-15a.

He held out for another minute, before a Wraith's Plasma mortar smashed into the last tank, destroying it and knocking him to the ground. Dazed, he look around and spotted a DC-15s and grabbed it, taking down several Grunts and Jackals.

A shot of plasma hit his arm, knocking the rifle from his hands. He looked up, and, seeing his assailant, a Minor Elite, he grabbed his sidearm with his left hand and brought the Alien down.

Suddenly, a spike of pain ran up his left arm. He looked and spotted several crystalline shards embedded in his arm, before they detonated. He was knocked on his back by the blast.

Looking up, he saw the two pronged blade of an energy sword ignite. He knew his fate as a Zealot pulled him up and impaled him with the sword.

Throwing the heretics body aside, the Zealot ordered a nearby engineer to unlock the door.

XXX

Sev shot another Elite as the seemingly never-ending tide of Covenant continued. They had been fighting insane numbers of Covenant for the last thirty minutes. Carter and Scorch were wounded to severely to keep fighting, and almost everyone else was hurt.

If it wasn't for the turrets, they all have died ten minutes ago. Unfortunately, they couldn't count on the turrets much, as it was becoming risky to go to even the closest one.

To compile their problem, they were running out of ammo. Other than what they were holding, there was only two grenade launchers, three assault rifles, 1 DMR, and a couple of pistols.

Make that 1 grenade launcher, as Emile ran out of ammo for his and threw it, smashing an unlucky grunt in the face, before acquiring a new one.

Bottom line, they needed reinforcements, and soon.

XXX

Cody was in a bad position. The Covenant had eliminated his outer defenses, leaving them free to deploy troops as they wished. The news of Kano's sacrifice hit Rex hard. After Denal, Kano was Rex's oldest subordinate. With them both gone, Rex felt quite disheartened, but wasn't going to let that distract him from battle.

To make things worse, the Covenant had deployed Wraiths that were taking potshots at the Proton Cannons. One was luck and destroyed the Gun.

"Fives" Rex called out "Get a pair of Macrobinoculars out here and get me that Wraiths position."

Fives complied, using the mortars arc and a map of the area to determine the wraith's position. The gunners were relayed the coordinates and took the Wraiths out.

That only momentarily solved the problem, as Covenant breached the outer door to sword base and stormed the area. After five minutes of intense fighting, Cody ordered the men to retreat into Sword's garage. Boomer and a trooper called Flareup stayed behind to delay the enemy.

Locking the first set of doors, They began to set explosives through the area between the doors, before locking he second set.

After several minutes, all gunfire stopped, and the clones took a minute to mourn their fallen comrades. Soon the first set of doors were hacked open, and once Rex was sure the Covenant were hacking the second, he detonated the explosives.

After a minute of silence, the hacking started again. Then just before the Covenant got through, the sound of UNSC ballistic weapons was heard, juxtaposing the Covenants own fire. Then it all stopped.

The doors began to open, the clones ready for the worst. Instead of several Zealots, there stood three ODSTs, and a plethora of dead Covenant. The groups leader advanced

"DId we miss the party?" sergeant Buck asked cheerfully

"By about five hours, yes" Rex replied with a certain sarcasm.

As the remaining ten clones walked out of the garage, the saw the Sparrowhawks hovering overhead, as well as multiple teams of Search and Rescue troopers, searching for any survivors.

"So it's over?" Rex asked

"No" Buck replied "The Spartans still need to do their part."

XXX

Back at Halsey's lab, things were looking bad for the Commandos and Spartans. It was down to Six, Emile, Boss, and Sev, all of the armed with the Commandos DC-15 pistols, which had a theoretically infinite number of shots.

They were all wounded, but kept fighting because they had to. If they didn't, then Halsey would be captured/killed and the Covenant could steal her data. Even though they were stuck on this planet, the Zealots would surely find a way to get off world, I mean, they made it onto the planet without being detected.

Just as everyone had lost hope, something basted through the ceiling. Five H.E.V.'s impacted the area. The first to come out was, to the surprise of all present, Jorge-052, the supposedly dead Noble Five. Next was the legend himself, the Master Chief, followed by his second in command, Fredric-104. Next was Kelly-087, the fastest Spartan, and William-043, the man that could hit a banshee at long range with a Rocket Launcher, while it was doing tricks.

The Covenant stood no chance.

"The Elites are dead, and the Grunts and Jackals are running" Will reported "Should we finish them off"

"No" Boss replied, as he pulled out his translator "The Grunts are forced to do their work and the Jackals are mercenaries, they'll surrender."

He then spoke into the translator "Covenant Soldiers, your fleet has been destroyed, and your leaders killed, and we can slay all of you without problem. But the Republic is merciful, and we will accept your surrender, if you should make it!"

After a few seconds, the remaining Covenant Marched out, threw down their weapons, and surrendered.

Boss sighed with relief, glad that his plan had worked.

"Hey, Will, Kelly, help a friend out will you" Scorch called out to the Spartans he favored

They came rushing over.

"You look like a detpack blew up on ya.' Will said, with the lighthearted humor that had resurfaced in him since the Spartans and Commandos got to know each other

"Fuel rods will do that to you." Scorch replied

Sev went up to Master Chief and asked "Where's Linda?"

"She was wounded and is currently out of action" He replied.

Sev's cold demeanor dropped for a moment, replaced by a look of general concern "Is she alright?" he inquired.

"She'll be fine" Chief stated "She's been in a Bacta tank for awhile, so she'll probably be awake when we get back."

Sev nodded, returning to his normal mood.

XXX

A group of soft-shells and technicians rushed into the Access between the surface and Halsey's lab, ready to repair the various facilities damaged during the battle. At the same time the soldiers came out, accompanied by Dr. Halsey.

As they approached the landing platform, they found General Kenobi in one of the Gunships.

"Ah, Dr. Halsey" He stated "it is a pleasure to finally meet the woman behind the Spartan program"

"General Kenobi" she replied "I guess I could say that It is also a pleasure to meet the man who has negotiated through the most impossible situations"

"Ma'am" Cody stated "Your to report to ONI castle base until repairs are finished on Sword. We have orders to take you there."

"Very well then Commander" she replied as she stepped on the Gunship, turning around one last time to say something.

"Sergeant" She called

"Yes Dr." Boss replied

"Please tell Kal Skirata to stop trying to hack ONI's databases. I've barely been able to stop them from sending out teams to kill him, and that's only because I know my Spartans are close to you and wouldn't want him dead, on your behalf, and partly their own."

"I'll try ma'am, I'll try" He replied

"Oh and Jorge" she turned to Noble's only Spartan-II

"Yes mum"

"Thanks for not dying"

"Your welcome" he replied in a humorous tone.

As Halsey's gunship flew off into the Horizon, Six remembered something. Grabbing a set of dog tags on his suit, he handed them to Jorge.

"You'll be needing these" he said"

Jorge smiled "Thanks" he said as he reattached them to his neck.

With all the wounded loaded up, the rest of the Soldiers piled into the last two gunships, Blazing towards the _Resolute_.

XXX

**Yay the first episode is finished, now I just have 60-70 more for the whole series, and I need to go over everything, making revisions and corrections, but thanks to everyone. And what do you know, I kept my promise. I am on top of the world… and very sleepy. **

**Well now that I have this written I can focus on getting the timeline out to you guys, although with school starting up again, I might have an even sketchier update schedule.**

**And I just realized I still have homework… shit ****L.**

"**Update" Added the first section of this chapter on to chapter 2**


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